The internet can connect individuals through, for example, a mesh of social networks, portals, commerce sites and forums. Many of these sites attempt to model relationships to facilitate commerce and build systems for providing recommendations. These social networks include many individuals that can interact with each other.
There is a lack, however, of a useful mechanism within social networks for mimicking interpersonal trust and reference networks. For example, if one needs to find a babysitter, a heart surgeon or a plumber, one generally turns to trusted friends to obtain references. That is, these referred service providers involve the well-being of family, and/or impact ones finances, and therefore, are typically naturally screened by the person looking for a reference. However, the recommendations provided by social networks do not include a personal connection between the recommender and the receiver of the recommendation. Additionally, the strength of the recommendations can be difficult to determine.
It is desirable to have a method, system and apparatus in which groups of commonly associated individuals can provide an internet user that is web browsing with additional intelligence. It is additionally desirable that the method, system and apparatus be adaptively updated as information associated with the groups change over time.